FOR Molly McCann, stepping away from boxing wasn’t just walking away from a sport — it was abandoning a piece of herself. The gloves, the ring, the rhythm of training had been more than a career; they were the scaffolding for a dream that felt unfinished.
Her words carry the weight of every athlete who’s ever been forced to leave the fight before the final bell, every person who’s tasted the possibility of greatness but been denied the chance to fully grasp it.
This wasn’t simply a loss — it was the aching void of ‘what could have been,’ a heartbreak measured not in wins and losses, but in the distance between potential and reality.
After being inspired by Bolton’s Amir Khan, ‘Meatball’ Molly was a victim of boxing’s ‘no girls’ rule, which consequently meant she hit a few speed bumps to achieve her goal.
“It was the Athens [2004 Olympic] games when Amir Khan won silver. Me and my cousins had just watched and he was the only Great Britain representative to go to them games, and I was like, ‘I want to go to a boxing gym. I want to go and do that.’ So I walked around the corner from ours.
“There was this gym, it’s not there anymore, but I kept knocking on the door and I was like, ‘Can I come?’ The coach was like, ‘No. No girls.’ I went back again and it was always the same response.
“After a couple of weeks of knocking on the door, I started watching what they were doing inside and I started training outside. Danny [the coach] went, ‘Come on then. Get in,’ and he let me in. He said, ‘Just copy them,’ and I could just do it from the beginning and it always felt like home. I just knew what I was doing.”
After years of working in the gym, where she sought solace as she navigated herself through life, hoping to one day match or even better the achievements of Amir Khan upon an Olympic podium, she was once again let down by boxing’s restrictions resulting from her gender.
“I won the national championships and then they were doing the development squad and the podium stuff and my weight wasn’t there so I thought if I can’t even attempt to get on them squads and go there, why am I going to waste my time, really? So, I ended up going to university to study at Liverpool John Moores Uni and I found MMA on TV and then I ended up just going to the gym.
“I was so heartbroken to be honest because I ended up winning the national championships and me coach Kevin Smith ended up as the national coach in Australia. So when he left the gym kind of went into despair and there was no one to take over the club full time.
“So, it was like, I’m not going to make it anywhere. I told myself fuck this, I’m going to uni. And to be honest, it was the first time since I’ve ever been a kid where I was just being a normal teenager like drinking, going out, having friends, clubbing, that kind of life. And I didn’t miss it too much if I’m being honest with you. The making weight.
“And I used to work at Subway when I was at uni, so it was like always the battle of can I eat this or am I going to have to go and stand in a sandwich shop for 10 hours and not eat anything? Do you know what I mean? So it was a lot easier but it was heartbreaking because I felt like I hadn’t reached me full potential.”
If you’re wondering, yes, the nickname ‘Meatball’ did originate from working in Subway.
“I think the fact that I managed to supersede what was ever expected of me in MMA took that away. I won a world title in MMA, in a different sport. So I’ve done a lot more than what many of those who lace up any gloves have managed to do and I’ve probably made more of a life for myself financially and in business because of MMA than boxing ever gave me. So it’s not all that bad. Do you know what I mean?”
Training acted as a distraction from reality for Molly. The Liverpudlian explained. “Without getting too emotional and deep into it, the boxing gym was my safe space growing up. It’s where I had discipline, routine and coaches that never let me down.
“And I learned to trust that if they said this, I’d do that. So, any gym I’ve ever walked into where I’ve got on with the coaches, I’ve always just felt at home and it is, it’s outside them four ropes or it’s outside that cage where life gets hard and gets tough and yeah, losses are hard but life’s harder.
“Caring and nursing for my stepdad until he passed away, whilst training and running the gym at the same time, you learn not to sweat the small stuff and you don’t know what anyone’s going through every day and how hard life is. I just thank God every day that I get to breathe and I get to walk into a gym and I still get to train and I still get to do what I love and I think that’s what that kind of taught me.”
Acceptance: the process or fact of being received as adequate, valid, or suitable. This is how big boxing was, and still is, to the 35-year-old. Walking into that boxing gym in 2004 was a life-changing experience.
“I think academically, I might have passed school and got a degree, but it was never easy for me. My way of learning is more hands-on and visual learning, reading and writing weren’t my forte, and I was never praised or championed in an academic setting.
“But within a gym, I was allowed to be quirky and funny and I was championed for that. And it was the first place growing up in life, working hard, I saw the rewards, and I saw positivity come from that. So I always felt welcomed and scouse coaches are the ones, do you know what I mean? We’re a little bit different. We’re not wired the same. But yeah, the love was always there.”
After an illustrious MMA career, now in her mid-thirties, McCann has gone full circle and is aiming to achieve her goal of becoming a boxing world champion, an ambition she thought was left behind in her teenage years. Standing by her side to realise her first and final dream is Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn.
“I trust the process and his process, friends and family have worked with him and have done great things and I know we can do the same. And if you work hard, he’ll work hard for you and better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. I trust him.”
From trying to emulate Amir Khan to now replicating what fellow Evertonian Tony Bellew did.
“I’ve kind of nearly ticked off everywhere on my bucket list in MMA where I wanted to fight, and there are two places left I was yet to fight, and one’s Goodison Park and one is in Ireland. And I’m fortunate enough that all my family’s going to be there, all my friends are going to be there. It’s the motherland. So it’s nice to do the family proud and my whole kit will be a homage to scouse and Irish culture.”
Belfast will be home to the debut and Hearn’s newest addition is looking to move quickly as she aims for her world title by her eighth fight.
“I think the first fights will be five or six rounds, I’ll have six fights in a year. So Molly’s got new running shoes on every other fucking day at the minute.”
September 13th will see McCann reborn, a hungry, thriving pugilist looking to prove all the naysayers wrong. Using all her UFC experience and showing huge confidence in her ability leads to Molly feeling almost no nerves. Pressure? What pressure?
“I’ve been on some of the biggest shows and biggest pay-per-view cards in recent MMA history. So, my boxing debut, I don’t believe, is going to be scary or I’m going to be nervous in terms of how the media will portray it. I think it’ll just be me, I’ll just have a high level of expectation of myself that I want to reach. I just would like to make sure I can perform the way that I want to perform.”
All roads lead to Liverpool?
“I’d cut off my right leg to fight back at home!” she agreed.
“I think I kind of took it for granted when I was fighting MMA, but my last fight in Liverpool was May 27th, 2018. That’s a long fucking time ago. When I fight, it’s a bit of a different atmosphere because all of my supporters, family and friends are lunatics. So it’d be nice to hear the arena go off its head one more time.”
